(1) I was probably the only person at one of Roy Hodgson's many – indeed, seemingly hourly – sad press conferences to be reminded of Italian designer Roberto Cavalli, but that's only because the sports journalists never witnessed the designer weepily explain for 45 minutes that he was cancelling his show in a manner decidedly reminiscent of the owlish England manager announcing, post knockout, that he was in a "a realm of despair" – a description the Daily Telegraph's Matt Law rightly described as Ron Burgundy-esque.
(2) Behind the owlish glasses were eyes that were alternatively penetrating and twinkling.
(3) Amid the partisan clamour of the election campaign, Paul Johnson, the owlish director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies , and his team of young policy wonks have come to be seen as the ultimate arbiters of that endlessly repeated question, “Do the parties’ sums add up?” Ever since it was founded in 1969, it has been part of the thinktank’s raison d’etre to raise the quality of national debate about tax and spending policy.
(4) "I think now," Ballard says, almost owlishly, "that the drained pool represented the unknown."
(5) The Dickens industry cranked up, spewing monographs, PhDs and owlishly over-annotated editions.
(6) After lunch, I go to see the PAC in action quizzing William Nye, an owlish aide of the Prince of Wales, about the tax affairs of the Duchy of Cornwall.
(7) She was the mother and determined journalist with owlish glasses and grey thatch of hair who cruised around Greenwich Village on a bicycle, her handbag stowed in a wicker basket on the handlebars.
(8) Roy Hodgson strode about in his owlish way, hands clasped behind his back, sporting a badly fitting T-shirt and blue shorts, looking for all the world like a grandfather taking a leisurely stroll on a golf course.